First Annual Tourism Indaba to kick-off in Sekhukhune
Sekhukhune
Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), in partnership with all its local municipalities and other key stakeholders, will organise the first annual tourism indaba.
The indaba aims to expose and highlight the widest variety of Sekhukhune’s best tourism products and services.
The Sekhukhune Tourism Indaba will indeed afford all participants with an opportunity to acquaint themselves with exciting and rooted talent as well as tourism attractions in the district.
The platform also creates one of its largest marketing events and opportunities for its Small Medium and Macro Enterprise (SMMEs).
According to latest survey, tourism and travel contribute close to 10% of South African economy and creates over 10% of total employment.
The sector creates quality jobs, strengthens local economy with vast opportunities to improve local infrastructure and conserve the natural environment and cultural assets and traditions, and to ultimately reduce poverty and inequality.
According to 2024 Reviewed, the Local Economic Development (LED) Strategy of Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), tourism development is being identified with an objective that seeks to enhance the development of the tourism industry through the value addition and promotion of local resources and activities.
The National Department of Tourism further pin pointed, among others, three key pillars that guide tourism strategy in the Republic of South Africa, enhance the South African tourism destination by improving infrastructure at tourism attractions, developing skills, offer support and instilling a culture of service excellence, and ensuring the quality and value of offerings. Enforce marketing, promotion, and advertising of district tourism development and also the Department of Tourism is addressing barriers to seamless travel and connectivity to develop South Africa’s tourism asset base.
Recent findings suggests that the Fish River Canyon in the Northern Cape, the Kruger National Park and Sun City tourist became areas of interest and being often visited by tourist coming into South Africa.
Given these vast value chains, several critical elements essential for tourism growth have been highlighted which include, mega conservation, marketing strategies, accessibility, corridors, Information Communications Technology (ICT), destination development, destination management, and skills development and transformation (Limpopo Tourism Strategy, 2018).
This makes Limpopo a province with a strong and clear comparative advantage which are linked to six tourism clusters that are used as building blocks for tourism development in Limpopo. They include the Family & Recreation cluster, Business & Events cluster, Sport & Wildlife cluster, Cultural & Heritage cluster, Safari and Hunting cluster, and the Special Interest cluster.
According to the district municipality, Sekhukhune can do more to develop the district as an international tourist destination by emphasising the broader biodiversity, cultural diversity, scenic beauty, and range of tourism products, and making it easier for tourists to travel through the provision of good tourism routes and road connectivity.
The areas of interest identified to be visited include Flag Boshielo and De Hoop Dams, Schuinsdraai Nature Reserve, Mantrombi, Potlake Nature Reserve and the Maleoskop Resort and Conservancy.
Other areas that have been discovered and celebrated entail the Kamoka Open Africa Route, Ndlovu Youth Centre, Setsong Africa Tea estate and many other heritage centres like Mampuru II statue, Tjate Heritage site, Fort Weber, Manche Masemola, Tisane, Echo cave, Shoe cave, Mapoch heritage and others.
The municipality said the tourism indaba is in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), which is a “blueprint” for the development of the country and aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 (NDP, 2030).
Among others, the strategic framework for the NDP is based on the following development priorities which are, to promote an inclusive and labour-absorbing economy, increase capital spending, specifically on infrastructure development, transition into a low-carbon economy and to create an inclusive and integrated rural economy.
It also aligns with the Limpopo Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (LPGDS), which offers a vision for development that reflects development priorities in terms of social needs and competitive economic growth potential for the province. In addition, LPGDS guides and coordinates the allocation of national, provincial, and local resources, as well as private sector investment to achieve sustainable development outcomes.
Furthermore, the indaba forms part of the Limpopo Tourism Strategy, which emphasizes on the concept of tourism clusters and the importance of economic development for the province.
The focus of the cluster is to raise international competitiveness in the province and to combine public and private contributions which will yield a great impact. The tourism strategy intends to promote private and public partnerships, attract more tourists than isolated tourism products and to increase the number of tourists coming to the province.
